Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no Reserve Members in attendance.

RESOLVED:  In accordance with Committee Procedure Rule 4.1 – Part 4B of the Constitution, the Panel agreed that the following Members could speak at the meeting:

Councillors Keith Ferry, Sachin Shah and Stephen Wright.

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Sub-Committee;

(b)               all other Members present.

RESOLVED: To note that the following interests were declared during the course of the meeting:

Agenda Item 8 – Revenue and Capital Monitoring for Quarter 2 as at 30 September 2012

Councillor Sue Anderson declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in that she was employed by the NHS.  She would leave the room during the discussion and decision making on this item.

Agenda Item 7 - Chair's Report 

Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was a Member of Cabinet when the Smartwater initiative had been approved.  He would remain in the room while the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Tony Ferrari declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was a Member of Cabinet when the Smartwater initiative had been approved.  He would remain in the room while the matter was considered and voted upon.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 November 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 November 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

To receive questions (if any) from local residents/organisations under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 17 (Part 4B of the Constitution).

RESOLVED: To note that no public questions were put, or petitions received.

To receive any references from Council and/or other Committees or Panels.

RESOLVED:  To note that no references were received.

Report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning.

The Sub-Committee received a report which set out issues considered by the Chair since the last meeting of the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Sub?Committee.

A Member expressed concern that the report indicated that there was no evidence to suggest that the use of Smartwater had reduced the incidence of residential burglaries in the borough.  He asked how many Smartwater kits remained to be distributed.  An officer stated that a third of the kits remained and that these were being promoted to residents by local Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.

Report of the Corporate Director of Resources.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Resources, which had been previously considered at Cabinet on 13 December 2012.   The report set out the Council’s revenue and capital monitoring position for Quarter 2 as at 30 September 2012.

A Member stated that the Sub-committee had requested documents relating to the implementation of the SAP system three months ago and queried why this had not yet been circulated to the Committee and when these would be circulated.  The Corporate Director clarified that the request was not made by the Sub-Committee but individually by the Vice-Chairman at a Chairman’s Briefing Meeting. The Corporate Director stated that she had sought advice from the Monitoring Officer regarding disclosure of these documents.  The Member expressed concern that it had been necessary to seek advice from the Monitoring Officer and that this was contrary to the openness and transparency required by the scrutiny function.  The Corporate Director stated that she believed she had valid concerns about the sharing of these particular documents and that she would contact the Vice-Chairman of the Sub?Committee about this once she had fully considered the advice from the Monitoring Officer.

The Corporate Director stated that much of the data in the Quarter 2 report had been superseded by the Quarter 3 report, which was due to be considered at Cabinet in two weeks’ time.  With regard to the Quarter 2 report, the Corporate Director stated that there had been a forecast overspend and spending protocols had been put in place to address this.  Strategic targeting had resulted in an under spend now forecast at just under £2m, and she expected this figure to improve further.  This had been due in part to the favourable results of treasury management and increased income from parking enforcement.  However, the ongoing PCT debt remained an area of concern and this issue featured in the Quarter 3 monitoring report.

A Member asked for an update about the costs of homelessness and also about the costs relating to the transfer of Public Health services to the Council.  The Chair left the room during discussion of the transfer of Public Health services to the Council.  In the absence of the Chair, the Vice-Chairman acted as Chair.

The Corporate Director responded that:

·                    the transfer of Public Health services to the Council would take place in April 2013;

·                    the funding allocation from the Department of Health (DOH) was not expected to cover the anticipated costs associated with the transfer. The Council was in negotiations with the PCT for additional contributions to finance the transition costs which entailed a number of risks, and these had been included in the Corporate Risk Register;

·                    homelessness spend was known to be difficult to forecast, however, the Housing Needs costs had levelled off since the end of Quarter 2. 

A Member requested that figures relating to the costs of public health transition and expected running costs be circulated to the Sub-Committee.  The Corporate Director undertook to arrange for the Project Manager  ...  view the full minutes text for item 111.

Report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning.

The Sub-Committee received a report which provided a summary of the issues considered and work undertaken by the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Sub-Committee in 2012/13 for inclusion in the Scrutiny Annual Report.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning which provided an update on the progress on the Council’s use of the Performance Information Scrutiny Review.  An officer highlighted the main areas of the report as follows:

·                    the majority of recommendations made by the Sub-Committee had been implemented;

·                    areas identified for monitoring in the future would be fed back at the Chair’s Briefing sessions – this could, for example, include the ongoing work on disseminating performance information to the public.

A Member asked if Councillors would be updated regarding the launch of the Local Information System (LIS) to residents in Harrow.  The officer advised that the LIS system had gone live and data was constantly being added, including recent census data.   Details of the arrangements for a briefing for Members would be circulated.

It was noted that Recommendation G on page 56 of the agenda should state that the scrutiny of police and crime fell within the remit of the Environment and Enterprise leads and not the Community, Health and Wellbeing leads, as stated in the report.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Report of the Divisional Director of Planning.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Divisional Director of Planning which set out the approach to continuing service improvement in the Development Management Service and the progress on the current LEAN programme of Process Re-engineering.

An officer highlighted the following areas of the report:

·                    the LEAN review which had been launched in August 2012 and incorporated both Access Harrow and Planning was ongoing;

• a raft of measures such as improving the quality of the information available on the Council’s website, more effective reporting systems and standardisation of training and officer manuals had been successfully implemented.  The Council was collaborating with the “Red Quadrant” Service Transformation Academy on a review of the planning service.

A Member asked for details regarding the recent significant IT issues relating to the Vaughan and Marlborough Schools online consultations which had resulted in the consultation pages being removed from the council website and asked why these had been omitted from the report and how residents’ complaints relating to these were being dealt with. 

The officer responded that the remit of the report had been to focus on performance of householder applications but the above issues relating to the two consultations would be reported to a future meeting of the Sub?Committee.  The Portfolio Holder for Planning and Regeneration advised that the validation of householder planning applications process fell within the remit of Access Harrow and not the Planning section.

A Member asked whether any measures were being implemented to reduce the number of invalid planning applications and what the target for reducing these was.  The officer advised that the issue of invalid planning applications was a common problem across all local authorities and not specific to Harrow.

No target had been set for these yet, however, the following measures were being implemented to make the process more effective: 

·                    information on the Council’s website relating to householder planning applications was being simplified to make it more accessible;

·                    local validation requirements for planning applications were being reviewed and a revised local list developed following consultation with agents.

A Member, who was not a Member of the Sub-Committee, asked whether the information in the report included building control, how the processes were being documented and whether further staffing reductions in the Planning service were envisaged as part of the LEAN process.

The officer advised that the procedure, which was being re-written only applied to householder applications and not to building control.  She stated that the procedure focussed on the validation process being carried out by Access Harrow and added that she anticipated further staff reductions as part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

A Member asked what proportion of staff involved in the validation process were from Access Harrow and what proportion from the Planning Service.  The officer responded that she did not have the exact figure, but that the Access Harrow team dealing with Planning enquiries were multi-functioning and dealt with both validation of planning applications and other Planning related issues.  The Member requested that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 114.

RESOLVED:  That, in accordance with Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item for the reason set out below:

Report of the Interim Divisional Director, Commercial & Procurement.

The Corporate Director of Resources presented a report which set out the progress in advancing the Council’s Procurement Transformation Programme since its launch in October 2010.  The Corporate Director highlighted the following areas of the report:

·                    £4.6m of savings had been achieved in 2011/12  from procurement activity, both in terms of revenue and capital and in the Housing Revenue Account;

·                    a sustainable procurement policy which included local business and community and regeneration goals had been implemented.

She added that the following improvements had been implemented with regard to the SAP system:

·                    better governance through the Strategic Procurement Board and greater enforcement of compliance with corporate procedure rules;

·                    greater involvement of the Central Procurement Team to engender a culture change among managers andrequisitioners;

·                    training to raise awareness of best practice and a reduction in the number of requisitioners;

·                    a streamlined waiver process;

·                    a procurement toolkit would be rolled out shortly;

·                    a greatly expanded contracts register.

The interim Divisional Director, Commercial and Procurement added that:

·                       progress on phase two of the transformation programme which began in November 2012 had been variable;

·                       supply chain management processes had been improved;

·                       a consultation exercise was underway regarding a new permanent structure for the Central Procurement Team and a new post of Divisional Director of Commercial and Procurement was being created;

·                       the case studies included in the appendix to the report relating to procurement activity were good examples of the savings achieved during phase 1 of the procurement transformation programme.

A Member asked about the number of procurement waivers and whether these were expected to reduce.  The Interim Divisional Director responded that the system had highlighted that in the past, the Council had not recorded these fully but that this would be done in the future.

A Member stated that the figures quoted in case study 3, which related to the Leisure contract were unclear.  She stated that a previous report submitted to the Sub-Committee had indicated that although income from the leisure centre had reduced the level of services and visitor numbers had improved.  The case study contradicted the Quarter 2 report which indicated that Community and Culture were reporting an adverse variance of £0.27m which principally related to a shortfall in leisure centre income.

The Interim Divisional Director advised that the case study had been compiled in June 2011 when the contract had initially been awarded to GLL, since which time there had been a shortfall in income and some unanticipated costs at the leisure centre.  A Member asked whether the income levels were expected to increase under the new contract.  The Interim Divisional Director stated that the possibility of a tri-borough libraries and leisure services contract was being considered and initial reports suggested that both income and service levels would improve under this proposed scheme.  The Corporate Director of Resources added that under the GLL contract there had been some improvement in visitor numbers, pricing and income.

A Member asked what risks were associated with the proposed tri-borough scheme and what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 116.